Through training, we can improve our ability to do several things at the same time?

Our ability to perform several tasks simultaneously is limited by the sequential mode in which human brain processes information and, in particular, how a decision is made. Although decisions cannot be made in parallel, through training, it can be can reduced the time needed for decisions making.

In the Neuroscience Group,  at Vanderbilt University, they have carried out several experiments in this direction. Using an equipment of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), they have made more records of individuals who were placed in a position to perform several tasks simultaneously. The data analysis found that part of the brain that enabled the greatest is the pre-frontal cortex one.

Subsequently, a group of volunteers was trained to perform a set of activities simultaneously (recognition of images and sounds and their classification through touch and voice actions). At the beginning of the training, they made the activities much slower, when the activities had to be carried out in parallel, than when they were done separately.After the training trial period, subjects gave the impression that the activities were carried out simultaneously.